The Herriman City Council had much to congratulate the
city’s finance director on during the month of May. Alan Rae led the city to
two prestigious budgeting awards while also finishing his Master of Business
Administration and becoming a certified public finance officer.

“I am equally as honored as I am proud to give this award,”
City Manager Brett Wood said on May 10 as he recognized Rae for helping the
city achieve the Government Finance Officers Association’s Certificate of
Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting. “I see this man here put in
lots of hours for our city. When it is budget season, I see the long days and
nights that he comes back into the office to make sure that our budget is
ready. He has set a high standard.”

The excellence in financial reporting award intends to honor
governments that go beyond the minimum requirements of accounting principles to
fully disclose their budget to the public. To receive the recognition, certified
reviewers must see that a city’s Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, or
CAFR, meets 109 pages worth of criteria.

“Not every city dares to put in for the award because
there’s so many stipulations it has to meet,” said Herriman Public Information Officer
Tami Moody. “But we’ve started to do it for transparency to let the public know
your budget has been reviewed thoroughly not just by the council but by an
entire review board.”

The Government Finance Officer’s Association deemed about
438 cities in the nation “excellent.” Thirty-four of Utah’s 245 cities,
including Herriman, received this honor.

In addition to the CAFR award, Rae’s department also
received CFOA’s “Distinguished Budget” award on May 17. The city council and Wood recognized Rae for this at the May 24 council
meeting.

This is the third year in Rae’s three years at Herriman City
that he’s led Herriman to these designations. Prior to working for Herriman,
Rae worked for Ivins in Washington County for six years where he also claimed
the awards each year.

Before Rae was hired, Herriman administration did not win
these awards because it did not create a detailed record like the CAFR, which
was 137 pages last year. Instead, the budget was simplified and consisted of
mostly spreadsheets, according to Moody.

The finance department still creates spreadsheets for a one-glance
look into the city’s financial status, but Rae has also implemented the CAFR
and a more detailed budget that’s available for the public to view.

To help increase transparency, Rae gave Herriman’s first
ever Government 101 class about the city budget in January. He explained how
the city’s budget works to Facebook viewers and an in-person audience.

“He’s done an excellent job of increasing the transparency
of the city money—where they are generated from and where they spent,” Moody
said. “This can just give more peace of mind to our public that the information
is accurate and transparent.”

And although Rae is proud of the CAFR and budget awards that
the city received, partially from his work, he said finishing his public
finance officer certification is his “biggest accomplishment.”

“There are only eight (certified public finance officers) in
the state besides me,” he said.

Rae described the certification as an “intense process” that
required him to take and pass five four-hour tests. Each test subject came with
about 10 books of recommended reading.

Rae began working on these tests in Ivins, where city officials
requested he take two of the tests. Because he’d already started the process,
Rae said he decided to study for the last three exams to officially become a certified
public financial officer. Now, seven years later, he accomplished that goal.

“I can tell you, it was a major relief when I got the last
test result,” he said. “It is one of those things where, if they never gave
(the certificate) to me in council, I would have been just as satisfied with
what I’d accomplished. I didn’t need to get in front of people for recognition.”

On June 7, the Herriman
City Council adopted Rae’s budget for the 2017–18 year. For more information on current or past
budgets, visit https://www.herriman.org/transparency/ and click on the “current budget” tab.